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It’s astonishing what music can do to our brains. Ever hear a jingle and say to yourself, “where in the world have I heard that before?”
The example that stands out in my mind is how the bass line for Queen’s “Under Pressure” is the exact same as Vanilla Ice’s “Ice’s Ice Ice Baby.” That use was intentional, playing tricks with our neural receptors when we hear that distinct groove.
Music theorists and musicologists have been studying musical similarities forever. Sometimes it’s blatant theft, sometimes it’s parallel thought. Often it’s a shameless update of a melody for the modern era. For example, Elvis Presley’s “I Can’t Help Falling In Love” is a reworked version of the French love song “Plaisir d’amour”, written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini.
Some other notable examples, via a list curated by Cosmopolitian:
- Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” and Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy”
- Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ and Madonna’s ‘Express Yourself’
- Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” with an almost identical groove to Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” – which wasn’t just a coincidence – Robin Thicke and Thicke and Pharrell had to pay Gaye’s family $7.3m after a lawsuit ruled it was blatantly stolen.
You get the gist. The DNA that goes into popular music gets murky as time slogs on, resulting in song twins.
Which brings us to the point of this post.
Ever notice the similarities between a popular Christmas song and the music you hear on NFL Sundays? I didn’t until a Tiktoker pointed out the similarities between the song “Sleigh Ride” and the theme song from the NFL on Fox.
Listen to it yourself here:
@tmw512 Depending on the type of person you are, this either ruins it or makes it 10x better #fyp #fypシ #christmas #christmassongs #nflmemes #nflfantasy
Turns out many people have noticed that they’re song twins for years.
One commenter on the original TikTok says “THAT’S WHY I ASSOCIATE FOOTBALL WITH THE HOLIDAYS.” Another speculates “They actually did that on purpose so that you associate football wit hthe holidays and you get all the good feels from it!!! Cool, huh?”
“Band kids been knowing this,” says one commenter.
Pretty neat similarity. Bring it up at a holiday party this year and see if anyone else hears it too.